For over 80 years Ohio has been a major player in lighter than air travel. It began with Goodyear creating blimps in Akron Ohio, including some of the largest airships ever made by the US. In the years since airship making has become relegated to floating billboards, with Goodyear using its 3 blimps to travel around the country and raise awareness of its brand, as well as advertise products for other companies on the sides of its lighter than air vehicles famous for hovering over major sporting events. Goodyear's floating advertising platforms are a far cry from the days of the massive airships and the fleets of blimps used by the Navy for various purposes, but Akron, Ohio, still is the center of Goodyear's airship manufacturing.

But there is a new player on the scene just down the road in Alliance, Ohio. Two backyard engineers with a dream are seeking to completely revolutionize the lighter than air industry with a unique design called the Dynalifter. Part airplane, part airship, the prototype already sits built and waiting for tests at Barber Airport. With that test, Robert Rist and Brian Martin are hoping to usher in a new era of air transportation for cargo.

They are the minds behind the Ohio Airships, the other airship company based in Ohio.

An Early Familiarity with Airships

Both Brian and Robert grew up a stone's throw away from Goodyear's Akron facilities. "I grew up in Barberton, Ohio," Brian Martin recalls via an email interview. "When we would hear the Goodyear blimp flying over, my parents would often throw my sister and I in the station wagon and follow the aircraft back to its landing site."

Even by then Goodyear had been scaling back its blimp production. The days of the giant blimps being made in Akron in the 1930s ended with the two massive airships Makon and Akron, both of which crashed in large storms due to being buffeted around by heavy winds. Despite having a less than 50% casualty rate for an air disaster the death of the Hindenburg also led to a less than popular impression of the airship all throughout the world except for enthusiasts. In the 1960s the US Navy cancelled using blimps for spotting submarines, the main use for lighter than air vehicles up to that point.

By the time Brian and Robert saw their first blimp, the day of the lighter than air craft was over.
   
The Challenges and Benefits of LTA travel

But Robert Rist didn't love the idea of airships because of some romantic connection with an age where the floating behemoths glided through the sky. "It isn't that I'm a huge enthusiast, just liked flying things in general, and wished that more people could enjoy it someday, without all the costs."

There are a lot of problems with airships. It wasn't just public perception that killed their general use, but a series of practical issues that makes airships awkward to handle, maintain, and use as effectively as other means of transportation.

"Blimps and historical airships are too expensive to operate," Robert notes. The first problem is that one needs a massive ground crew to dock the airship as it comes to ground, on top of all the regular maintenance crew. Airships are extremely light, so are difficult to handle in wind.

"Airships can hover in theory, but can never hover in operation, as the wind would have it's way with it. This is a real problem when you are talking 700 ft. freight aircraft," Brian points out.

The other big problem with lifting cargo with an airship is not picking the cargo up, but letting go of it. An airship for cargo has to have some sort of system of filling up with ballast right before releasing a large load, lest it spring right up in to the air. Current plans for airships use pumping water to do this, but one still has a mental image of Indiana Jones reaching for a bag of sand to swap out with the statue on the pedestal, and not quite getting it right.

Yet there are a lot of obvious benefits to being able to slowly fly massive cargo loads to hard to reach destinations. Several companies are proposing to build massive airships to truck cargo by air and drop into a location. As Brian Martin points out the attraction is  "global, commercial freight.  Any economy's growth is limited by its transportation infrastructure.  This goes for the US, and it goes for developing nations. Most people do not consider that a $100K truck is traveling on a one trillion dollar highway network."

Robert and Brian talk about the global and swift reach of the airship travel compared to regular methods. "It would allow the reduction of the cost of shipping globally. You can bypass congested ports, have lower cost than Cargo Jets, and much faster speeds than a surface ship." They both think such an airship trucking fleet as they envision would own a 'middle market' area of a multiple trillion dollar market.

The Air Race is On

The Dynalifter concept isn't technically an airship in the old school lighter than air train of thought. Brian says it's "an airplane with augmented lift from helium. A small portion is from hull lift. The rest is an even percentage of dynamic (wings), and helium (static)."

He got the idea when helping his son build an airship model. He "found that small prototypes do not get enough lift in such a small scale. So we decided to put wings on the model, and it hit me. That helium made the aircraft lighter, thus light wing loading."

The design gives Dynalifter many benefits over others seeking to build blimps to ship cargo. The Dynalifter would not hover, but land on a very small airstrip. It would use less fuel than an aircraft, but not be buffeted by the winds like an airship.  The Dynalifter could land and unload just as quickly as a plane, without a mooring crew to hold in place. If everything works out, the Dynalifter will be able to offer its users the best of an airplane and the best of a traditional airship.

Close To Launch

Many other airship companies have dreams of roadless trucking, but no prototypes or actually constructed vehicles. The Dynalifter crew are ahead of they game: they have a prototype.

"It seems as though we are very close to a first flight," Brian says. "People should gear their expectations to where ours are regarding prototype flight.  The Dynalifter prototype is merely a proof of concept or science project; not a production vehicle." The prototype has already taxied out seven times so that they could check it over, tweak the design, and both men emphasize that they are taking this one step at a time.

"We have a luxury of not having to rush anything. Engineers are now making sure the pilot has all the control he needs though all transition takeoff speeds. Once we are comfortable with that we will rotate the aircraft, do short lifts, short lifts with test of control, then go into short lifts and landings. All over a runway," Robert says.

When do they think it might fly?

"This could be within the next month, or it could be months off; depending upon how our next tests go," Brian says.

Sticking with Ohio

With a company name like Ohio Airships, it isn't a surprise to find both men love their home state. "Bob and I are unusually patriotic about Ohio.  I remember having debates with my out-of-state friends at college about which was "the best
state".  The debates didn't last long after I asked them where the most US Presidents were from, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Jesse Owens, Jack Nickalus, and now Lebron James! Ohio is the birthplace of practical flight, the Goodyear Zeppelins, and the Goodyear Blimp.  Where else are we supposed to be?"

Robert agrees that they belong here. "It is amazing, that the Airship past (Goodyear-Zeppelin), present (Goodyear Blimp operation),  and future (Dynalifter Testing) are all within 30 miles of Akron."

Both men, however, wish for a little bit more vision out of the state.

"We are kind of disappointed in the Ohio government, as they lack the vision of trying new things. They will not supply any development money. It is killing the economy here. We were told by Ohio Development officials that we would probably do better moving it to another state."

Nonetheless, Ohio Airships is finding money via private investment, talking about the benefits of quick, roadless trucking with the US military, and during this summer, ready to roll out their prototype for more tests, and eventually, fly.